The book could be worth as much as $20M

I n an emotional interview last month, Brad Pitt opened up for the first time since his explosive split from ­Angelina Jolie, shouldering the blame by admitting how his weaknesses and failures, mistakes and missteps made the demise of their marriage inevitable. Despite his confessions, however, there were many nagging questions left unanswered — omissions that he seemed to acknowledge when he jokingly said, “That’ll be in my book.”

But Angelina may beat him to the punch. Sources claim that Angie — who has kept a stoic silence ever since the ­infamous plane flight in September when Brad reportedly got into a fight with their eldest son, Maddox — is now ready to give her side of the story. “The past eight months have been the toughest time of her life, but Angie’s finally feeling strong enough to talk about her ordeal,” a pal says. “She has started to tell friends about how things fell apart because of Brad’s drinking and his failings as a father — and what really happened between him and Maddox on that airplane. She’s actually finding it cathartic. I hear she may even be in the process of writing a tell-all, and word is it could fetch as much as $20 million, which isn’t at all surprising. I’m sure the revelations would be ­absolutely explosive!”

coming to blows

No doubt the most anticipated disclosures, sources claim, will be about the allegedly violent altercation between Brad, 53, and 15-year-old Maddox on September 14. Over the course of a 12-hour flight from France to a refueling stop in Minnesota, Brad “was drinking heavily,” a source claims. “About an hour before touchdown, Angie begged him to stop, but Brad, who was blind drunk, refused. At one point he took a wine bottle and started to shake it and spray it all over the plane. He was screaming at her, saying, ‘Don’t tell me what to do. I’ll do whatever the f**k I want!’ ”

Brad’s wild tantrum woke up Maddox and his siblings, the source claims, “and Maddox rushed forward to protect Angie and slapped Brad — and Brad slapped Maddox right back! Angie had to intervene and managed to calm things down.” Once they landed, Brad stormed off and wandered the tarmac, cursing and blowing off steam. After taking off for the final leg of the trip to L.A., Angie arranged for separate cars to meet them on the ground. After they arrived, she piled the kids into her car, locked the doors and sped off to a hotel instead of going back home. “And of course she never returned,” the source says.

Broken beyond repair

Though the fight was the final straw that pushed Angie, 41, to file divorce papers — she did just that five days later — sources claim that she had made up her mind to leave Brad months earlier. “Angie told friends that she had already come to the conclusion that their marriage couldn’t be salvaged,” the pal says. “She had seen a divorce lawyer in July to draft the paperwork and establish a game plan, which included renting a home in Malibu where she and the children could hide out. She was just waiting for an incident to pull the trigger, and it happened. After that, there was no way she was going to subject her children to a volatile situation that had become toxic and possibly dangerous.”

Brad himself recently admitted that his drinking played a huge role in his marital breakdown, saying, “I can’t remember a day [when] I wasn’t boozing… truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka.” From the moment they fell in love while shooting 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, “Angie has rarely known Brad sober,” claims another ­insider. “She stayed with him because he’s a good guy — and a good dad — when he’s not drinking. But when he is, he gets irrational, then moody or angry. It was a vicious cycle. When Brad and Angie got married in 2014, it was actually a last-ditch effort to save their relationship, but I think she realized as soon as they exchanged vows that it was a mistake. In a sense, their whole marriage was a lie.”

calling a truce

Though Brad and Angie’s court battle over custody of Maddox, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8, has become less fractious of late, Angie may not be able to entirely forget and forgive. “She’s still hurt by how Brad’s friends seem to dislike her — and she’s confided to her own friends that Brad broke her heart, and that she’s still angry at him for throwing his family away,” the pal says. “But he’s been getting help with his drinking [see box, above], and Angie wants to move forward for the children’s sake.” To that end, she recently bought a $25 million mansion in L.A. just five minutes away from Brad’s home. “It’s a signal of her commitment to coparenting,” notes the friend. “Angie realizes it’s better for the kids if they have divorced parents who are at peace with each other rather than be raised by two people who aren’t happy together.”

Adds the friend: “Angie is happy that Brad seems to be healing, but her focus right now is on the kids. She has no intention of dating and making the mistake of rushing into a new relationship. She’s been through hell, but she’s determined to come out stronger. There’s no looking back.”